“Just Because” Review – Tremors 4 – The Legend Begins

I watch a lot of dumb shit. Netflix seems to encourage it. I get all sorts of weird recomendations and I’m not one to ignore the pleadings of a computerized generation of possible late-night viewing options.

I saw that Tremors 4 was up on instant watch and decided to give it a go because it was, up until now, the only one I hadn’t seen and felt like I was doing myself a disservice by not completing the series. Besides, I love hokey junk like this. I figured it’d be a a nice “so bad it’s good” entry and then I’d move on.

The thing is, it’s actually not a bad little movie. I mean, the budget constraints are obvious. Probably why up until the last quarter of the film we really don’t see that much of the actual monsters. It’s not an uncommon tactic even in better movies. Hell, how much of the shark did we actually see in Jaws? How much worse was it when we actually saw more of it in the sequels? Remember how shitty it looked in part three? Yeah.

The movie here is good for what it is. Michael Gross is still the best part of the franchise, but this time he gets to play against type by portraying Burt’s ancester Hiram who’s a pampered city boy who has never fired a gun in his life. Seeing Gross reverse his role so heavily makes the film stand out among the other installments and it makes for a fun ride. The supporting characters all do their job well but this is Gross’ show through and through, much as it was with the third film and the better parts of the second.

The biggest improvement over the last two sequels is that we’re back to seeing the monsters simply as worms. None of the shrieking chickens or fire-farting birds. As infants the worms launch themselves from the ground to attack their prey but they grow up so fast that this really isn’t much of a factor in the overall film. Just another little glimpse into the creature’s asinine life cycle.

I may be delirious but watching character-actor/amazing creep Billy Drago play a gunfighter hired to help kill the beasts made me think he’d be a great Saint for an eventual Preacher movie but god knows that’ll never happen. Still, food for thought.

If you’re bored, go ahead and watch it. It’s only 100 minutes long and there’s much shittier stuff on Netflix at the moment. Believe me because I’v watched it.